JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Some voters in Alabama will be casting ballots for a second time in a congressional primary Tuesday. The special election is the result of redistricting pushed through after the U.S. Supreme Court removed race as a consideration for drawing district lines but allowed for partisan gerrymandering. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: So he has information (ph)...
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Willie Dixon and Mary Gatson are sitting in the fellowship hall of Beulah Primitive Baptist Church in Lowndes County, awaiting a congressional town hall and discussing the last-minute changes to Alabama's voting landscape.
WILLIE DIXON: I think we're in the same congressional district.
MARY GATSON: No, I don't think - once they draw the lines, it's going to be different.
ELLIOTT: Mary Gatson is right. Under new maps adopted by the Alabama legislature in May, Lowndes County is moving from the 7th Congressional District to the 2nd. Dixon and Gatson worry the outcome will be to disperse and discourage Black voters, who tend to vote Democratic.
DIXON: Create enough chaos, people will give up and go home.
GATSON: I think it's very inappropriate. It's the wrong time. No. That's politics, though. That's the name of the game (laughter).
DIXON: It's not fair by no means.
GATSON: Yeah, it's just not fair, never has been.
ELLIOTT: They say the fight is nothing new, pointing to Lowndes County's strategic location along the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march, a movement that led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. But in April, the U.S. Supreme Court dismantled a key section of the act when it ruled in a Louisiana case that it's unconstitutional to draw district lines based on race, prompting several Southern states to rush to redistrict before midterm elections to consolidate Republican power.
TERRI SEWELL: This is not about no representation or some representation. It's about fair representation.
ELLIOTT: Democratic Congresswoman Terri Sewell is one of two Black Democrats in Alabama's congressional delegation. The other five are all white Republicans - this, in a state where Black people make up a little over a quarter of the population.
SEWELL: It's unacceptable that we are living in an era where the Supreme Court has said that as long as a state articulates a legitimate partisan reason for redrawing a map or drawing a map that it's OK, even if it discriminates against minorities.
ELLIOTT: The new map creates the most difficult path to reelection for the state's other Black member of Congress, Shomari Figures in the 2nd District. He was first elected in 2024 after Black voters sued and federal courts ruled that Alabama's congressional map was discriminatory. Judges created a new district that included the mostly Black cities of Mobile and Montgomery. But now the district no longer includes Mobile, Figures' hometown. Even with the odds against him, he's not giving up.
SHOMARI FIGURES: There's been a lot of efforts by some to paint this district as a lost cause...
ELLIOTT: Yeah.
FIGURES: ...Saying that we lost the majority Black seat in the state of Alabama. Well, neither is true. The seat was never majority Black. It's currently about 47% Black. The new district takes that down to about 40% Black. And so we represent everybody.
ELLIOTT: Figures is uncontested for the Democratic nomination. But with the promise of a flipped district, now six Republicans are running in tomorrow's primary. Before redistricting, there was only one - 29-year-old Hampton Harris.
HAMPTON HARRIS: I qualified for this district, got the Supreme Court ruling, qualified for the new district. I was running at one point in essentially half the state. So I was confused as the candidate. For the people that don't really pay attention to politics, I'm sure it's going to be extremely confusing.
ELLIOTT: He's also a little worried about turnout in the sweltering August heat on full display here in Eufaula, Alabama, where he's come for a candidate forum hosted by Barbour County Republicans.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: We're getting about ready to start, but we've got food in the back, if you will.
ELLIOTT: A big tent is set up behind a historic mansion, the tables adorned with red, white and blue flowers. Before things get started, candidate Joshua McKee chats with local officials.
JOSHUA MCKEE: I'm glad that we've got maps that represent the people now.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Exactly.
JERRY MCGILVRAY: Whoever would have thought - we don't have anything in common with Mobile, Alabama.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: No.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Yeah.
MCGILVRAY: It's the stupidest thing.
ELLIOTT: Barbour County Commissioner Jerry McGilvray is referring to the fact that under the previous map, this east Alabama town on the Georgia state line was in the same district as coastal Mobile, on the west side of the state near Mississippi.
MCKEE: (Inaudible) them. I always...
MCGILVRAY: I don't want to hear about shrimp boats and deep-sea fishing.
ELLIOTT: He says this region is more aligned with rural agricultural interests. The front-runner in the contest is state Representative Rhett Marques, a businessman from Enterprise, Alabama, who has President Trump's endorsement. After redistricting, he switched from running in the 1st Congressional District in May to this newly drawn 2nd District. Marques calls it a great opportunity.
RHETT MARQUES: Well, this has been the way this district has been drawn for a long time, generations. And the fact that the Republicans have an ability to regain the seat is great. I love it.
ELLIOTT: It's not just for Alabama, Marques says, but control of Congress could be at stake. Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Eufaula, Alabama. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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